Following a massive drop in Malaysia’s press freedom index, Communications Minister Fahmi Fadzil said much needs to be done to strike a balance between protecting media freedom and combatting slander and misinformation.
“I accept Reporters Without Borders’ (RSF) report with an open heart.
“We need to reflect on many things in terms of guaranteeing press freedom and dealing with slanders and the spread of misinformation.
“Insya-Allah, my team and I will study the report to come up with better initiatives for the future,” he said on X.
Earlier today, RSF’s 2024 World Press Freedom rankings indicated that Malaysia’s ranking came at 107, falling 34 spots from 73rd last year.
For the first time in three years, Malaysia does not top the rankings for Asean countries with Thailand attaining 87th place.
“The threat of defamation proceedings keeps journalists on a short leash in Mongolia (109th), while news sites critical of the government are often blocked in Malaysia (107th),” the report accompanying the index noted.
Last year in August, attempts to access UtusanTV resulted in redirection to a generic government notice claiming a violation of law without specifying the nature of the violation.
Before that in June, MalaysiaNow was partially blocked, as some Celcom and Maxis users reported that they were unable to access the website.
DNS tampering is a common method used in Malaysia to censor “undesirable” online content including pornography, online gambling, and violent extremist sites.
This has also been used to block legitimate news sites in the past, including Malaysiakini’s election results site during the 14th general election in 2018. - Mkini
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